Multifunction devices with touch screen displays may utilize a soft keyboard on the display to facilitate text entry. A typical soft keyboard is an image on the display showing letters or other symbols, and may be arranged like the keys of an ordinary keyboard or typewriter. A user may use a finger to “press” the buttons on a soft keyboard, thus entering text or performing other actions.
One difficulty with a soft keyboard is that it occupies space on the display. This is particularly problematic when the touch screen is small, such as the screen on some portable handheld devices. The space occupied by the soft keyboard is not available for other objects or applications, such as information content, graphics, or interactive controls (e.g., buttons).
When a touch screen display has scrollable information, the presence of a soft keyboard can increase the time it takes to scroll to desired information. For example, each swipe to scroll the information is smaller, thus requiring more swipes to scroll the necessary amount.
Accordingly, there is a need for multifunction devices that optimize a touch screen display by displaying or hiding a soft keyboard based on user actions. Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for displaying or hiding a soft keyboard. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated multifunction devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.